Another reason processed food may make us fat: Some preliminary research is indicating that environmental exposure to common chemicals — including pesticides and those used in food and beverage containers — may trigger obesity. The NIH’s National Toxicology Program is reviewing bisphenol A, a chemical used in cans for food; concerns about its estrogenic effects prompted California legislators to propose banning it from certain products sold in-state, a move industry has fought vigorously. Washington Post

Risky business: A Q&A with Denise Caruso, author of “Intervention,” a must-read book about biotechnology. It’s time to take a hard look at the how and why transgenic foods and products have been unleashed on our farm fields and onto our dinner tables without a real risk-assessment model and without any informed debate. Far from being a shrill Luddite, Caruso has many suggestions for a better model government agencies could use. Salon

Anytime food and sometimes food: Teaching toddlers healthy eating habits, at New York’s Nutritional Sciences Preschool. New York Times Related: Tea over at Chow’s Grinder writes about a blog that parents of picky eaters might want to check out — The Great Big Vegetable Challenge, in which a UK mother chronicles her attempts to get her reluctant son to sample the vegetable kingdom from A-Z.

Chicago’s got SOLE food: The Chicago Reader’s 2007 food issue has an in-depth guide to local farms that offer Community-Supported Agriculture subscription programs, as well as a thought-provoking examination at the challenges of running an all-organic restaurant, through the lens of Crust, a pizzeria that will be only the fourth organic-certified restaurant in the country. The chef-owner takes a few valid potshots at other chefs whose strolls through the farmers markets make great photo-opps but can’t possibly be stocking a real kitchen.

Local shout-outs: An article on different types of charcuterie calls out the Bay Area’s Fatted Calf (for its bresaola made from Marin Sun Farms beef, which we can attest is savory superbness) and Paul Bertolli’s Fra’mani. New York Times Magazine